Sony and World Athletics Bring Broadcast Innovation to Life
at Inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championship

TOKYO, September 9, 2026 － Sony Corporation (Sony) and World Athletics are joining forces to introduce new broadcast innovations for the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championship, in Budapest, Hungary, on 11-13 September. Sony will serve as an official global partner of the World Athletics Ultimate Championship providing its proprietary optical tracking technology to create a new visualization of sprint finishes, as a proof of concept at the championship.
Drawing on Sony's long history of working with world-class broadcasters to showcase some of the world's largest sporting events, this partnership will combine Sony's technologies with World Athletics' ambition to reimagine the presentation of athletics and create more immersive and emotionally engaging viewing experiences for fans around the world.

The World Athletics Ultimate Championship is a bold new global championship bringing together the world's best athletes to settle who is the greatest in athletics. Designed to create a new experience for fans, the championship places broadcast innovation at the heart of how athletics is presented to audiences around the world. The initiatives are designed to make the decisive moments of athletics more visible, more immersive and more emotionally engaging for fans watching the championship around the world.

Reimagining the Finish Line

Developed specifically for track disciplines, the technology captures athlete movement data and recreates the decisive moments of sprint races as immersive three-dimensional computer graphics (3DCG) visualizations. These assets will be integrated into the host broadcaster's international feed, which will be aired by more than 30 major broadcasters worldwide, including the BBC (United Kingdom), NBCUniversal (United States), CCTV (China), ARD/ZDF (Germany), NRK (Norway), SVT (Sweden), L'Équipe (France), CPSL (Caribbean), Polsat (Poland) and TBS (Japan).

By transforming split-second performances into dynamic visual storytelling, this new proof of concept aims to give audiences a new perspective of athletics, helping them better appreciate the extraordinary speed and athleticism of the world's greatest competitors.

As part of the partnership, Sony will also continue to support and work with accredited photographers to ensure their creative and delivery process runs smoothly at the Camera Service Booth in the venue. Hawk-Eye Innovations, a Sony group company, will also provide its video replay service to help World Athletics officials make accurate and efficient decisions throughout the championship.

World Athletics Chief Information Officer An Dang Duy said: "The World Athletics Ultimate Championship is designed to challenge conventions and elevate how our sport is experienced by fans around the world. Working with Sony allows us to explore new possibilities in storytelling, technology and broadcast augmentation, creating never-before-seen moments that help audiences fully appreciate just how remarkable these performances are, while bringing them closer to the raw drama, intensity and extraordinary human achievement that define athletics." ,

Visit Sony x World Athletics website for more information
Sony Official World Athletics Website